Differences of methods to estimate generation of waste electrical and electronic equipment for developing countries: Jordan as a case study

• The study examined pros and cons of five methods of estimating generation of WEEE.
• The C&U method, a frequently used method, was modified to address its drawbacks.
• The modifications allow to include secondhand products.
• The compared methods provide different estimations for each appliance.
• Each method has to be applied cautiously depending on the market conditions.

This paper examined pros and cons of five methods of estimating generation of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). The study considered WEEE generated from the household sector and aimed at discussing the applicability of the methods to developing countries. For this purpose, Jordan was used as a case study in the Middle East and the North Africa (MENA) region. The total and individual amounts of six types of WEEE generated in Jordan, including both firsthand and secondhand were estimated. The Consumption and Use (C&U) method, which has been widely employed in developing countries because parameters needed are a few and easy to obtain, was modified. The modifications addressed its drawback in which it underestimates the amounts of WEEE. The study showed that most of the compared methods provided similar estimates of the total WEEE amounts but dissimilar results for each appliance. Each method has to be applied with careful consideration of the market conditions (e.g. saturated or unsaturated). For instance, the original C&U method can be applied to a condition of a fully saturated market. Here, the method's assumption is each household owns, at least, one appliance shared by the household members. The Simple Delay method can be applied to a fully saturated market, where the Time Step and the Mass Balance methods apply to both saturated and unsaturated markets. The Approximation 2 method overestimates the amount of WEEE, but its suitability is for a fully saturated market.